BOWDOINHAM

It turns out that, in a power outage, Santa Claus will eat chocolate chip cookies even minus the cookie when circumstances make it difficult for baking.

Tessa Kingsley, her husband and three children ages 6, 9 and 11 learned this firsthand after going without power from about 3:30 p.m. Monday until about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday — Christmas Eve.

“It was so much fun,” Kingsley said, without hint of bitterness after losing power for about 24 hours — another casualty of a twoday ice storm that was still affecting some Central Maine Power customers in the Midcoast region Thursday.

Kingsley’s home in a Habitat for Humanity housing development off South Pleasant Street in Bowdoinham is well insulated and never dropped below 57 degrees, she said, even with no heat.

“It’s nice too because I get to share how privileged we are that this is an occasional problem,” she said. “There are people that don’t have power ever.”

They had oil lamps and candles. All the children were equipped with LED camping lights and are used to the cold.

Throw on slippers, a bathrobe and hat and call it good, Kingsley said.

So her family wasn’t affected all that much. But fun?

“We had flashlight scooter racing at night,” she said.

With a propane stove, they could still cook and percolate coffee and the kids are used to being knee deep in art projects. The big difference was the quiet.

And then the kids turned the slippery sloped driveway into a luge while she stayed inside and enjoyed the peace.

The kids were making Christmas cookies Thursday instead of on Christmas Eve when instead they left chocolate chips, and “it turns out Santa Claus really likes chocolate chips.”

She was heartened by so many offers of help by friends, and also learned you can’t tip utility workers.

“I did try,” but the two line workers graciously informed her they couldn’t accept the money. “Not only are they effective and efficient, they are standup and do the right thing,” Kingsley said.

Carolyn Sweet of Bowdoinham lost her power Monday and said it was late Tuesday when it came back on.

As is tradition, her in-laws came to the house with a prime rib for the oven, but without power, they cooked it in a tinfoil dish on the grill instead.

It came out so good, she said she cooked the pork roast on the grill Christmas night — even with power back on, the start of a new tradition.

Spending the entire day Christmas Eve without power made for a festive atmosphere, Sweet said. There were no televisions or electronics. They hooked up a small generator and when her husband started it, the pull cord ripped off, triggering a trip to Home Depot.

This was essential so the Sweets could carry on their tradition of making Christmas cookies for Santa. The generator powered a toaster oven that could bake cookies four at a time. Then her three children decorated them.

The Sweets’ gas fireplace, a stovetop and town water ensured the family was warm and comfortable. At night with no power, it forced everyone into the same room where the candles were, including a candle they light every Christmas for her son Logan, who died in 2008 at age 6 from viral myocarditis, which burned bright for the Sweets.

Sweet had also wrapped most of her gifts ahead of time, so the few she had to wrap Christmas Eve upstairs with a flashlight in her mouth wasn’t overly difficult.

“We got through it and it was fun,” she said. “We were comfortable, warm, we had food, so we had no complaints.”

Learning his lesson from the 1998 ice storm that left him powerless for 13 days, Ryan Shea of Richmond made sure he had a generator when this most recent ice storm hit.

Thursday, Shea got power back at his home on Pleasant Pond off U.S. Route 201 after a four-day stretch.

The generator powered the entire house, so it was only items like the microwave and washer and dryer his wife and three children ages 5, 10 and 14, went without. The generator probably burned through an estimated 20 to 25 gallons of gasoline but he knows there are other residents without one who were dealing with frozen water pipes.

Shea, the owner of a snow maintenance company, was offering to lend the generator to any other Richmond resident still out of power.

During much of the outage he and his wife were taking care of their accounts, sanding and salting.

It’s a minor inconvenience and when power goes out, Kingsley said. You just change your expectations.

“Certainly around the holidays it brings back into focus what it’s about: being with our families, being loved and loving others. Not so much about TV and Christmas movies and Internet.”

Crews are still working around the clock to restore power to about 10,000 statewide.

In Sagadahoc County, about 280 customers were still without power Thursday, said CMP spokesman Gail Rice, and there was still one circuit to repair.

She said there were 25 line crews and 23 tree crews working in Richmond to restore power to Richmond and some of the neighboring towns on those same circuits.

Rice noted that after repairing lines bringing hundreds of customers online at once, the outages that remain are on remote access roads where repairs become labor intensive.

Crews also face the prospect of warmer weather today and Saturday that could thaw iced-up tree branches, dropping them onto power lines and creating new outages. And winter weather is again forecast for Sunday into Monday. Some Bangor Hydro customers have been told not to expect power until 2014.

dmoore@timesrecord.com